From Excel to Excelling

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

“We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.” ? LeeAnn Taylor

Dear Friends,

As some of you may know, I started my ‘grown up’ life as a banker. It was a time when I thought that working for the top investment bank in the world, was a sign that ‘I made it’ in life. I thought that success was at my feet. I worked with people who spoke fast, smoked a lot, drank coffees by the buckets, and pretended, quite well :-), that this is it, this it what everybody secretly wants, but are afraid to admit :-)!

I was that fast talker, smoker, and coffee drinker. I worked hard and I played hard. I never in a million years thought of the consequences of such fast living. The mentality was such that we felt invincible, that tobacco, caffeine, late nights and early mornings, coupled with a heavy and stressful job, could do nothing to us…Until…They did…

I remember how, almost overnight, pneumonia crept in…Uninvited…I felt feverish, coughing and sneezing, yet I thought that it was just a light cold, nothing to worry about…I continued going to work, going to the gym, meeting friends, doing errands…Until, one morning I just couldn’t get up. I had to call in sick and go and see a doctor. Pneumonia. Heavy one at that. Two weeks of staying still, resting, taking antibiotics and injections. This was a totally new thing for me. I am made for action, I thought. Stillness is not for me…

Coming back to myself

Well, my Friends, during those two weeks I went back to basics. I started asking myself what I want, what I need, and how I want my life to be (I never did that during the ten or so years at the bank). Where I see myself in ten years’ time, and trust me, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t see myself in banking. Yet, that was all I knew. That was all that I ‘thought’ I wanted.

During the first week of my sick leave, a friend of mine called and offered to bring a healer with her. “Someone who does all sorts of amazing stuff” – her words, not mine :-), mostly right brain stuff (until then a relatively unexplored territory for me), or shall I say a territory which I accepted, but dared not endorse.

I said yes. And believe me, as they say, the rest is history!

I healed relatively quickly. I experienced the healing power of sitting still, and enjoying the silence. Listening to my body, to every cell of my being. Learning to visualize and meditate followed… I discovered the world of NLP, Energetic NLP, different healing modalities… In other words, those two weeks helped me search and find what was missing in my life. Connection to myself, to who I am, to what I want, to how I want it.

Going towards my dream

Those two weeks influenced my decision to leave the job that no longer contributed to my growth. I realized that I needed to leave and set sail to new adventures. There was so much I wanted to learn, explore, discover…

When I made decision to leave, and to pursue my dream, as if by magic the right teachers appeared. I was and am blessed to have teachers and mentors that are leaders in their chosen field, that I get to learn from the best, and share my learnings and experiences with people around the world, and contribute to the quality of their lives.

And ever since then, I’ve been counting my blessings. A seemingly bad situation, had such an impact on my life, and turned out to be one of the best things that happened to me :-)! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t propose an illness, in order to help you find your life’s purpose, LOL! There are easier ways…

My point is that there is a lesson and learning in everything that happens to us. If we are open to learning and if we know how to give the right meaning to things that happen to us. I was lucky enough and blessed to be guided in the direction in which I was meant to go.

With this in mind, may we invite you to go back to a time in your life, when something untoward happened: an illness, a relationship break up, a job lost, an interview didn’t go according to plan…, and notice what you chose to believe, what meaning you gave to that situation… Was it all negative, and it-always-happens-to-me type of thinking, or did you take the bull by its horns and turn the situation to work in your favour!

Did you spend time searching and uncovering the meaning the situation brought with it? Remember – those who search find :-)!

In our seminars, we regularly witness a massive transformation in people, when they go through a somewhat longer version of the exercise proposed above…They search, explore, uncover and discover….

Thomas Björge – ITA NLP (International Trainers Academy of NLP) Accredited New Code and Classic Code NLP Trainer and Master Coach and Designer of New Code Game ‘Arrows’, to be featured in Dr. John Grinder’s upcoming book.